Sacrilege of Belshazzar - Daniel 5:1-4

As the events of this chapter unfold, we see the irony of
Belshazzar’s name, which means “Bel protect the king.”
Belshazzar was the son of Nabonidus (“the god Nabu is to be
revered”), who was last of the Babylonian kings. The
designation “Belshazzar, the king” has been criticized as
historically inaccurate since he did not reign as sole king
and was never directly called “king” in the inscriptions from
Babylon. However, the Aramaic word for “king,” (melek), does
not necessitate the coronation of a sole monarch. Furthermore,
a cuneiform source expressly states that Nabonidus entrusted
the kingship to his son, Belshazzar. Hence, he was king of
Babylon.

The Prayer of Nabonidus, found with the Dead Sea
Scrolls, indicates the king had been “smitten with a
serious inflammation, by the command of the Most High God,
in the city Tema,” and was quarantined until “seven times”
had passed. This disease may be the reason Nabonidus was
absent from Babylon when the kingdom fell. On the other
hand, this prayer might be apocryphal genre drawn from
Nebuchadnezzar’s malady.

Great feasts were characteristic of antiquity. Persian
kings frequently dined with as many as 15,000 guests. The
Assyrian king Ashurnaspiral II entertained 69,574 guests
at the dedication of his new capital city of Calah in 879
B.C. Alexander the Great had 10,000 guests at his wedding
feast and the story line in the book of Esther encompasses
ten banquets.

It was the custom at Ancient Near Eastern feasts for
the king to sit on a raised platform, apart from the
guests. Excessive drinking after the dinner was common in
this period. Many feasts became drunken orgies, since
people who are overly excited by alcohol are apt to lose
control of their thoughts and actions. History is replete
with costly mistakes made by people while under the
influence of alcohol.

While Belshazzar was drinking his wine and becoming
inebriated, he did a most foolish and blasphemous thing.
He gave orders to bring into the licentious, idolatrous
festivities the sacred articles from the Temple of God
that Nebuchadnezzar had brought back from Jerusalem in 605
B.C.

Nebuchadnezzar had been drunk with pride; his grandson
was drunk with wine and corruption. However, their eternal
destinies are opposites. The patience of God has run out;
there is no time to repent! The justice of God is
righteous and it is beyond question, as seen in His
declaration to Moses, which is quoted by Paul.

I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will
have compassion on whom I will have compassion (Exodus
33:19; Romans 9:15).

Nebuchadnezzar received God’s mercy and compassion, but
Belshazzar had blasphemed God, thereby crossing over the
line of God’s grace to judgment. Jesus taught that
“whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be
forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin” (Mark 3:29).
Belshazzar may have blasphemed against the Holy Spirit by
rejecting His revelation of God’s sovereignty. Daniel
points out in this chapter that Belshazzar had rejected
the truth about the Most High God, which he had received
from his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar.

The drunken feast was symbolic of the moral condition
of the empire and its king. The feast was an outrageous,
sacrilegious affair and its participants were reprobate.
Such debauchery called for swift and irrevocable judgment.
Babylon’s moral degradation had filled the cup of
iniquity, just as the Amorites had centuries before
(Genesis 15:16). As the king and his nobles, wives and
concubines drank from the sacred goblets, they were
symbolically drinking of Yahweh’s cup of wrath.

Therefore hear this, you afflicted one, made drunk, but
not with wine. This is what your Sovereign LORD says, your
God, who defends his people: “See, I have taken out of
your hand the cup that made you stagger; from that cup,
the goblet of my wrath, you will never drink again. I will
put it into the hands of your tormentors, who said to you,
“Fall prostrate that we may walk over you.” And you made
your back like the ground, like a street to be walked
over” (Isaiah 51:21-23).

In the hand of the LORD is a cup full of foaming wine
mixed with spices; he pours it out, and all the wicked of
the earth drink it down to its very dregs (Psalm 75:8).

Man is intuitively religious; if the true God is not
worshiped, man will be dominated by Satan and turn to
idolatrous worship. The moment the guests “praised the
gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone”
with the golden and silver goblets in hand, they crossed
over the line of God’s patience with their blasphemy.
These goblets had been dedicated and sanctified to Yahweh,
and they had desecrated them.